Charulatha Chandrasekar’s veena recital in Naadhabrahmam’s 21st year concert series established that musical expertise is independent of age. Having started playing the veena at a very young age, Charulatha has gained ample comprehension of the nuances of classical music and how to represent it through the veena.
Gopalakrishna Bharati’s fast moving ‘Sababathikku veru deivam’ in Abhogi, with brisk swarakalpana, was followed by a precise and sober raga essay of Sahana for Tyagaraja’s ‘E vasudha nivanti daivamu’. Here too, Charulatha embellished the kriti with swaras at ‘Dasa varada tyagaraja hrudaya.’
The major part of this two-hour concert was devoted to the exposition of raga Purvikalyani.
Expressive phrases
Ample gamakas and expressive phrases formed the raga essay, adding enough appeal to the alapana. Charulatha chose Muthuswami Dikshitar’s gem ‘Meenakshi memudam’. The kriti was presented in a brisk manner, to emphasise its beauty and depth.
The mandatory niraval and swaras at ‘Madurapuri nilaye’ gave generous scope to explore Purvikalyani’s splendour, and the charm of the lyrics. The swara section here moved as a beautiful stream through several permutations and combinations, before reaching the finale.
Charulatha was backed by G. Prem Krishnan on the mridangam and H. Sivaramakrishnan on the ghatam — they played unobtrusively to suit the melody of the veena. Nevertheless, they were conspicuous in their precise tani avartanam.
The other prominent inclusions in Charulatha’s concert were ‘Sarasa samadhana’ by Tyagaraja in Kapi Narayani and ‘Karpagame kadaikkann parai’ by Papanasam Sivan in Madhyamavati.
The commendable aspects of Charulatha’s concert was her grasp of the time factor, good programming, clarity and quality.
